As part of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s $7.5 billion New Housing Marketplace Plan to provide affordable housing for 500,000 New Yorkers, Oldcastle Precast provided structural precast concrete building components for the new development at Forest Houses in New York.
It is part of the largest municipal housing plan in the nation.
The development at Forest House is a “green” and energy saving designed, precast concrete building, manufactured by Oldcastle Precast, containing 124 affordable units available to households making 60% of the AMI or less. The 109,000-sf building also contains a superintendent’s unit, landscaped open space, and 43 underground parking spaces under the first level and features a unique rooftop, commercial greenhouse that will yield 80,000 to 100,000-lb of fresh produce a year and be distributed to residents and local markets in the Bronx.
Oldcastle manufactured 136,162-sf of precast concrete hollow core plank for the floors and roof, which was specifically design to handle the unique load of a roof top greenhouse and 70,000-sf of precast concrete wall panels to construct an energy efficient building envelope for the eight-story Forest House Development building. The exterior precast walls were cast with Glen-Gery thin-brick and sandblast type finish with colored concrete to provide a comprehensive exterior finish.
In addition to the housing structure, a Storm Capture Reuse System was installed to handle approximately 16,000 gallons of captured water. An equipment package treats the captured water making it available for irrigation to the roof-mounted hydroponic greenhouse, providing another unique feature to this environmentally friendly project.
This is the 5th total precast concrete building solution that developer Blue Sea Development and Oldcastl have worked together on in the past 10 years.
The development team consists of Blue Sea Development Co., Blue Sea Construction Co., LLC, ABS Architects and TY Lyn International. The team was selected due to its history of developing quality affordable housing that is both attractive & sustainable. The project is scheduled for completion December 2012 and is seeking LEED Certification. BD+C
Related Stories
| Apr 12, 2011
American Institute of Architects announces Guide for Sustainable Projects
AIA Guide for Sustainable Projects to provide design and construction industries with roadmap for working on sustainable projects.
| Apr 11, 2011
Wind turbines to generate power for new UNT football stadium
The University of North Texas has received a $2 million grant from the State Energy Conservation Office to install three wind turbines that will feed the electrical grid and provide power to UNT’s new football stadium.
| Apr 8, 2011
SHW Group appoints Marjorie K. Simmons as CEO
Chairman of the Board Marjorie K. Simmons assumes CEO position, making SHW Group the only firm in the AIA Large Firm Roundtable to appoint a woman to this leadership position
| Apr 5, 2011
Zaha Hadid’s civic center design divides California city
Architect Zaha Hadid is in high demand these days, designing projects in Hong Kong, Milan, and Seoul, not to mention the London Aquatics Center, the swimming arena for the 2012 Olympics. But one of the firm’s smaller clients, the city of Elk Grove, Calif., recently conjured far different kinds of aquatic life when members of the City Council and the public chose words like “squid,” “octopus,” and “starfish” to describe the latest renderings for a proposed civic center.
| Apr 5, 2011
Are architects falling behind on BIM?
A study by the National Building Specification arm of RIBA Enterprises showed that 43% of architects and others in the industry had still not heard of BIM, let alone started using it. It also found that of the 13% of respondents who were using BIM only a third thought they would be using it for most of their projects in a year’s time.
